“I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” —John 14:3
If the meeting of a long absent friend, or brother, on earth, be a joyous event, what, my soul, must be the joy of your union with this Brother of brothers, this Friend of friends! “I will come again!” Oh! what an errand of love, what a promised honor and dignity is this!—His saints to share, not His Heaven only, but His immediate presence. “Where I am, there you shall be also!” Father, I will (It was His dying wish—a wondrous addition in that testamentary prayer) that those whom You have given me be with me where I am.” Happy reunion! Blessed Savior, if Your presence be so sweet on a sin-stricken earth, and when known only by the invisible eye of faith, what must be that presence in a sinless Heaven, unfolded in all its unutterable loveliness and glory!
Happy reunion! it will be a meeting of the whole ransomed family—the Head with all its members—the Vine with all its branches—the Shepherd with all His flock—the Elder Brother with all His kinsmen. Oh, the joy, too, of mutual recognition among the death-divided—ties snapped asunder on earth, indissolubly renewed—severed friendships reunited—the triumph of love complete—love binding brother with brother, and friend with friend, and all to the Elder Brother! My soul! what do you think of this Heaven? Remember who it is that Jesus says shall sit with Him upon His throne—”He who overcomes.”
A GLORIOUS REUNION by John MacDuff